Apr. 16, 2003 - 18:17 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Some times I must reach out for a way to cope with what appears to be a rather unpleasant day. I woke up hurting, not in excruciating pain but something that had apparently been hurting through the night. Nothing unusual for me, but something giving me the old, "Hit the ball, drag George," sort of feeling. Made me think, what the heck, another downer of a day.

As I lay there trying to find a comfortable position I began an execise that helps me sometimes when I get in a mental state like that. I thought about someone who I would like to spiritually emulate.

I worked with a man who was so disabled that it was hard to understand how he could work at all. A man who could probably have been on SSI for sure.

Yet, day after day, every week he would be at work with us. He could hardly walk. Don't know whether it was a condition of his from birth or what. He used a cane and put one foot in front of the other so slowly that one could see the heavy effort he was making to do something that came so naturally to us. It was obvious to me that walking was physically painful to him.

He would be at the gate as early as the guards would let him through and creep little by little to the time clock to punch in and be at his station and start to work a minute or two before the rest of us. Break times usually he would nibble on a piece of candy or such and maybe sip some coffee. The only time he would venture from his position was to make a pit stop. He usually managed to do that at a break time and would make it back to his position as we came back. He would eat lunch at his work spot. His output was as good and better than some of us. Then too, he would usually be the last of us on that shift to leave the plant. Creep to his car and drive off. His car had the necessary gadgets to allow him to safely drive.

There was a big hoo-haw about eating at a work position, supposedly because food particles were getting in the manufactured product, but I think it was mainly because some of us would snack through the day. After that even Thermoses were not in evidence, nor were cups of coffee consumed during work periods. My friend had nothing during his breaks, and would walk along toward the lunch area chewing on something as he trudged toward the break area, was able to sit briefly and eat a bit more before heading back to be in his position on time.

All the time I worked around him I never heard him complain or whine, he was humanly cheerful and seemed to accept what life dealt him with equanimity and forged on ahead.

As with many of the folks there, I lost track of him when I retired. The friends I still have from there hadn't worked around him and so never knew him.

But he is an inspiration to me yet. I would like to say that my exercise made me hop up like the Energizer Bunny and keep goin' and goin' but it wasn't quite like that, I creaked around, made a pit stop, got coffee and a banana went to my keyboard, popped a pill and began my day in a much more cheerful mood than my body wanted me to be experiencing. I have thought about him often today as things went along, marveling about such a person. Meanwhile getting a bit more comfortable as the rusty joints eased off. Like him, I proceeded to go on about gettin' through The Day . . . . . . . . .

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